"The more you know and the better you understand, the more severely will you be judged, unless your life is also the more holy. Do not be proud, therefore, because of your learning or skill. Rather, fear because of the talent given you."

Thomas á Kempis

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"Lord, take from me everything that hinders me from going to You. give me all that will lead me to You. Take me from myself and give me to Yourself."

Finally we should consider the events which are happening to us
now and which will happen to us in the future, as coming from the
hands of God. Everything we do should be directed to this one end:
to do the will of God and to do it solely for the reason that God
wills it. To walk more securely on this road we must depend on the
guidance of our superiors in external matters, and on our
directors in internal matters, to learn from them God's will in
our regard, having great faith in the words of our Lord: "He that
heareth you, heareth me[1]."

Above all, let us bend all our
energies to serve God in the way he wishes. This remark is made so
that we may avoid the mistake of him who wastes his time in idle
day-dreaming. Such a one says, "If I were to become a hermit, I
would become a saint" or "If I were to enter a monastery, I would
practice penance" or "If I were to go away from here, leaving
friends and companions, I would devote long hours to prayer." If,
If, If -- all these if's! In the meantime such a person goes from
bad to worse. These idle fancies are often temptations of the
devil, because they are not in accord with God's will. Hence we
should dismiss them summarily and rouse ourselves to serve God
only in that way which he has marked out for us. Doing his holy
will, we shall certainly become holy in those surroundings in
which he has placed us.

Let us will always and ever only what God wills; for so doing,
he will press us to his heart. To this end let us familiarize
ourselves with certain texts of sacred scripture that invite us to
unite ourselves constantly with the divine will: "Lord, what wilt
thou have me do[2]?" Tell me, my God, what thou wilt have me do,
that I may will it also, with all my heart. "I am thine, save thou
me[3]." I am no longer my own, I am thine, O Lord, do with me as
thou wilt.

If some particularly crashing misfortune comes upon us, for
example, the death of a relative, loss of goods, let us say: "Yea,
Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight[4]." Yes, my God
and my Father, so be it, for such is thy good pleasure.

Above all, let us cherish that prayer of our Lord, which he
himself taught us: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven[5]." Our Lord bade St. Catherine of Genoa to make a notable
pause at these words whenever she said the Our Father, praying
that God's holy will be fulfilled on earth with the same
perfection with which the saints do it in heaven. Let this be our
practice also, and we shall certainly become saints.

May the divine will be loved and praised! May the Immaculate
Virgin be also praised!